Chattanooga Choo Choo

Frank and Roz lived in Sedalia until about 5 or 6 years ago when they moved to Chattanooga.  We had a delightful breakfast at their house and then they gave us the grand tour of their new home city.  We took an hour hike at The Enterprise Park where over 50 ammunition bunkers are buried in the grounds but it is now a delightful walking and biking park.  We then went downtown to the Farmer’s Market, got some fresh fruit and vegetables and then had lunch.  

Across the street from the restaurant was the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel.  It was a train station that now houses a hotel, restaurant and convention center. Many of the hotel rooms are inside converted sleep cars lined up on the tracks outside the station. A maid let us look inside one of the train cars and it would be lots of fun to stay there.

Frank was a very good city tour guide.  We saw the baseball stadium, the Aquarium, Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge and many more buildings.

Civil War in Chattanooga and Chickamauga

As we have traveled across Tennessee, we have passed a few opportunities to study the Civil War as it was fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, & Alabama. But here in Chattanooga one cannot take in Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain, Incline Railway, train museums, etc and not learn something about the Civil War battles and the people who led them.  The streets in Chattanooga are named after the many commanders of the Civil War.  North/South streets are named after the Union leaders and the East/West streets are named after the Confederate leaders. There is even a marker in our campground for one of the brigades.  We were told we were sleeping on Civil War soil.

Chattanooga was considered the “gateway” to the Confederacy due to four major railways converging here. President Lincoln felt it was as important for the Union to take over Chattanooga as it was Richmond, the capital of the South, thereby cutting off supply lines to the Confederacy.  The Confederates held Chattanooga until September 1863 when the Union Army pushed into the Valley. By Sept. 20th the Confederates had pushed back the Union assault and the Union held city lay under siege by the Confederates.  Then in November General Grant and reinforcements arrived to help open a supply line into the city.  Nov. 23, 24, & 25 saw continuous fights with both sides winning some and losing some, until the Union Army takes over Lookout Mountain and Chickamauga Creek and forces the Confederate troops to retreat into Georgia. Chattanooga is firmly in Union hands, setting the stage for General Sherman’s march into Atlanta in 1864.

Several hundred thousand men died in November 1863.  Thirty years after the war, in an effort to mend the divided south, Northerners proposed to establish this as a National Military Park to commemorate the fallen soldiers from both sides of the conflict.  1600 monuments, markers, cannons and story boards were erected where the battles had occurred. We drove along a very sobering and educational tour of the battlefield. 

We also enjoyed the Incline Railway up to the top of Lookout Mountain.  It is considered the steepest railway in the world at 72.7% grade. At the top is Point Park where we learned the most about the battles and could see not only the Chickamauga battle fields but the city itself. The park was built by the US Corps of Engineers thus they erected their symbolic gate at the entrance of the park.

Golf, Kayak, and Thunderstorm

A unique aspect of camping in southern state parks is the golf courses connected to the park. We are in a state park campground that has a Jack Nicholas designed course surrounded on three sides by Tims Ford Lake. Tennessee has 8 more state parks with golf courses. 

We played a round on Wednesday morning even though it was threatening rain, which was a good thing because it kept the heat down. I can't say it was a really challenging course but it was fun. In fact, I had such a good time that I talked John into playing again tomorrow morning. I shot a very respectable 97!!

Today and Tuesday we got the inflatable kayak out and paddled around the lake for an hour or so each day but other than that we had pretty lazy days. 

Last night a huge thunderstorm blew through here. The weather alert kept going off during the hour leading up to the storm so we had the RV ready for a high wind event - awning and both slides rolled in.  It was exciting to watch as the rain and clouds rolled in. We thought our neighbor was going to loose his awning but it survived. At one point we couldn't see more than a couple hundred yards down the cove due to heavy rain and the pine cones falling on the roof sounded like gun shots. The weather should be good the rest of the week. 

Tims Ford Lake

Tims Ford Lake is one of the lakes formed by a dam on the Tennessee River and the TVA or Tennessee Valley Authority.  A man with the last name of Tims lived on the river near a place that was easy to cross or ford the river, thus the name Tims Ford.

We got the inflatable kayak out and went paddling a couple of times. We played golf twice on the State Park Golf Course named Bear Trace. We survived a severe thunderstorm. We drove into Winchester for lunch one day and stopped at an Amish store for eggs and butter. I did laundry, we read books, we took naps, and we researched Chattanooga, our next destination.

I’d say this was a very relaxing place to stay.

Jack Daniels Whiskey

We left the Natchez Trace on Sunday morning and drove to Lynchburg, TN, home of the Jack Daniels Distillery then on to Tim’s Ford Lake and State Park.  We drove down some of the narrowest and curviest roads we have ever been on to arrive at the State Park, only to find that we have reservations in another campground that is another 9 miles down the road!  This state park is divided into two locations and we plugged the wrong location into the GPS.

After all the hiking and biking we have done this past week, we have been really lazy and not done much of anything for two days!  The Fairview Campground is closer to Winchester and is right on Tim’s Ford Lake. It is fairly empty during the week but completely full on the weekends so by Friday, we will have to find a new place to stay.  

Even though we arrived at the Jack Daniels Distillery shortly after it opened we were still in the 2nd tour of the morning.  Moore County is a dry county, one cannot buy any kind of liquor in any store and there are no bars in this county, and yet the largest whiskey producer in the world is right in the middle of it in Lynchburg, TN. Jack Daniels owns 88 barrel houses with each house holding anywhere from 1 to 3 million gallons of whiskey.

Jack Daniels, Jasper ‘Jack’ Newton Daniels, was the youngest of 10 kids born in 1850.  At the age of 7 he asked to leave home and moved in with a Lutheran minister and his new wife.  This minister distilled whisky, taught Jack how to do it and sold the recipe and business to him in 1866 when he was 16 years old. The secret to his whiskey is the spring water found on his property. 

We toured the production areas, seeing the mash, the barrels and one line of the bottling process.  Whiskey, and bourbon, is made from 80% corn, barley and rye.  Other than spring water, the other process Jack Daniels uses that nobody else does is to filter the alcohol through 10 feet of charcoal over 4 days to remove all impurities from the liquid.  The charcoal (made on the property) and the barrels are made from sweet maple wood.  The barrels are charred on the inside before adding the whiskey.  It is then stored in the barrel houses for 3-10 years. 70% of the whisky's flavor and its color comes from the barrel.

Jack Daniel’s died at the age of 61 due to a broken toe. Well, not directly.  One morning he couldn’t remember the combination to his safe and in frustration, he kicked the safe and broke his toe.  It got infected and had to be amputated, then the foot got infected and had to be amputated and then the leg and then he died.

At the end of the tour we sampled five of their products - Gentleman Jack, Black Label No. 7, Single Barrel, Honey, and Fire.  The last two are considered liqueurs.  

We had lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House.  A family style meal of fried chicken, meat loaf, mac and cheese, and whiskey flavored baked apples followed by fudge pie with whiskey flavored whipped cream.  They say you can’t drink the whiskey in this county but you can serve it up on a plate!

Blast from the Past

I just love social media, specifically Facebook. Because of FB, I have reconnected with friends from high school and college and am able to keep up to date with some of the things they are doing - travel, sports, family, etc.  

A day or so ago I saw on FB that one of my roommates from college was in Memphis and would be traveling across Tennessee to go back to their home near Atlanta. On an impulse, I reached out to them to let them know we were almost in their path and invited them to stop by our campsite for a visit. I’m not sure when we last saw Debbie and Johnny but I think it might have been shortly before we moved to Sedalia in 1976! 

They took me up on the invitation and we had a delightful visit at the RV. They stayed for lunch but couldn’t spend much more time as they had a five hour drive ahead of them.  It was so much fun to see them and we talked so much that we totally forgot to take a picture!  Hopefully, we will see them again in the near future and that it won’t take 30+ years to do this again!

Biking the Trace

Because of bridge construction on the Natchez Trace near our campground, we had to load the bikes onto the Jeep and drive to the other side of the bridge so we could explore the Trace north of here. 

We started at Fall Hollow where a small creek runs over steep drop-offs to create some pretty falls.  Then we rode up the longest hill ever keeping in mind that it will be down hill all the way back to the car.  Yeah, right!  One of our diversions was at a stop call Tobacco Farm.  We rode on a shaded, gravel road thinking it would eventually connect back with the Trace.  But it didn’t, so after about 1-1/2 miles we turned around and rode back UP the hill, took a short cut and got back on the road. 

We stopped for a picnic at another pull out then about 2 miles further we found a restroom so we could refill our water bottles.  That’s when we turned around and headed back.  It was very hot on the road and we were always on the lookout for a shady area to rest and drink water.  We logged 28.5 miles on our bikes today and our behinds are feeling pretty bruised.

Poison Ivy!

We took a three mile hike this morning on a trail that circles the campground, follows a creek, traverses several ridges, crosses the Old Trace and is completely forested.  Beautiful! Unless you look down and discover you are walking in POISON IVY!  It is everywhere!  There is no avoiding it.  We wore boots and long sock but should have put on long pants.  We are hoping that a good scrubbing with Lava soap (its as close to lye soap as I can get) and hot water will erase all evidence of the poison oil.

We drove into Hohenwald for dinner. Not exactly a food paradise but we had a decent inexpensive meal at the Junkyard Dog Steakhouse.

Natchez Trace

We left Memphis Tuesday morning and drove until Hwy 64 intersected the Natchez Trace Parkway then drove on the Trace to the Meriwether Lewis Campground.   We are dry-camping for free in a very nice park that is the sight of Lewis’ death and gravesite. The campground is underused at this time.  There must be 30 some sites and only about 8 of them are occupied.  It is very quiet and peaceful, cool in the mid-day heat, and cool enough for a great nights sleep.

The Trace was once just a small trail used by Indians and buffalo until the settlers started moving into the region. They found this was a recognizable route and expanded it. In 1801 Thomas Jefferson designated the Trace as a national post road for mail delivery between Nashville and Natchez. River men would float cash crops, livestock etc. down the Mississippi to New Orleans, sell their goods and their boats for lumber, then walk or ride horseback back up to Nashville and start over again. The Trace also played important rolls in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It became a part of the National Park System in 1938 and was officially completed in 2005.

Meriwether Lewis was traveling from New Orleans to Washington, DC to file his final report of his exploration of the Louisiana Purchase when he became unexpectedly ill and died in 1809 while on the Trace. The site has a model of the log home he died in and the monument that was erected over his burial site in 1814.

Today we rode our bikes all over the Meriwether Lewis Site and then onto the Trace. This is a designated bike route so the traffic has to yield to us bikers, the speed limit is only 50 mph, no commercial vehicles are allowed on the trace and there are frequent historical sites along the road. All this and a shaded road made for a pleasant, though strenuous (as in hills) 18 mile ride.

Rock and Soul and Piggly Wiggly

You don’t get much more southern than soul music and a Piggly Wiggly.  

We were one of the first through the door at the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum this morning.  We could have visited various other museums that feature this style of music from Gibson guitars to radio stations to recording studios but this one museum seemed to cover them all. From the beginning of blues in the cotton fields, B. B. King and Isaac Hayes to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, we learned the history of the beginnings of country, soul and rock and roll.  Sun, Stax and Hi Records had some of the biggest names in the industry on their labels.

Our second outstanding BBQ lunch in Memphis was at Germantown Commissary.  It was a 20 minute drive to get there but well worth the wait!  We have to say their ribs are some of the best we have every eaten and the pulled pork was very tender and juicy.  Too bad we can’t go back there over and over!

The 1920’s estate built of pink marble (hence the name ‘Pink Palace') was to be the home of Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. He never lived in it. Today it has been added to and expanded to house a two story museum of the history of Memphis from the dinosaurs to the days of the Piggly Wiggly and the Viet Nam Wall; a planetarium and a 3D IMAX theatre. Very interesting. The museum has a Clyde Park Miniature Circus (being renovated so no moving parts), a live-sized replica of the first Piggly Wiggly store, and many displays of pioneers days, the Civil War, early medical practices, and much more.

Memphis - Home of Barbecue, Blues, and Civil Rights Movement

Our number one item on today’s agenda was to eat BBQ at one of the best places in downtown Memphis - check.  Number two was to go out to Mud Island - check. And number three was to walk along Beale Street - check!  But not in that order!

We visited Mud Island years ago, shortly after it was opened and when the kids were little and it hasn’t changed much since then.  We toured the Mississippi River Museum and walked the length of the River from St. Louis all the way to the gulf.  One half mile long, it covers all the twists and turns, city and lakes along the Mighty Mississippi.  Instead of driving we chose to walk to Central BBQ (a 2 mile hike) where we had a very nice lunch of dry-rub ribs and brisket with several sides and nice cold ice tea!

On our way to Beale Street we stopped for a view of the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.  Several buses had unloaded there so we did not fight the crowds in the National Civil Rights Museum but it was still a sobering moment for us.  Sunday afternoon on Beale was a hopping place to be.  Every bar had a live band playing,or a DJ blaring his tunes, the streets were blocked off from cars so people were walking and dancing everywhere. We shopped in several stores that claim to be long standing traditions on Beale such as A. Schwab Dry Goods, Tater Red’s, Strange Cargo, and Lansky Brothers.  We would stop at times to listen to the music and one group caught our attention so we sat down, had a libation and listened to a phenomenal harmonica player and singer! 

We left Beale just in time to see the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel swim in the water of the central fountain and then waddle along the red carpet to the elevator for their ride back to their roost on the roof.  The hotel itself is a beautiful building and worthy of a stop without the ducks.

A modern site in downtown Memphis is the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid!  It rather dominates the skyline and draws people in but it is not much different inside than any other Bass Pro except that it has an elevator to the observation tower at the peak of the pyramid.  Since we walked over 17,000 steps were too tired to stand in line or to pay $14 to ride the elevator.